Strengthening Family Relationships

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Strengthening Family Relationships Making a
Difference

• Robyn Parker Elly Robinson
• Family Relationship Services Australia Inaugural
  Conference, 5-7 November 2008, Cairns

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OVERVIEW

• Broadly challenges and strategies associated
  with encouraging individuals to engage in
  prevention and early intervention strategies
• What is family and couple wellbeing?
• What limits willingness to proactively seek help?
• Practice issues and examples that address these.

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Couple family wellbeing

• Couple stable relationship is one where both
  are satisfied both want it to continue
  (Halford, 1999)
• Family difficult to define because
• Contemporary families are complex
• Children, adolescents adults view them
  differently
• Many statistics but no national picture of
  wellbeing

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Possible framework

• Indicates the need for a framework for family
  wellbeing, to inform family research and policy
• Families Australia - aspects of family life
  strengthened by service provision
• Physical safety, physical mental health
• Supportive intra-family rshps
• Social connections outside family, in community
• Economic security independence
• (Source Babbington, 2006)

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Families views on strengths

• Qualities of Strong families
• Communication
• Togetherness
• Sharing activities
• Affection
• May differ for different family types
• (Source Family Action Centre, University of
  Newcastle)

• Support
• Acceptance
• Commitment
• Resilience

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Summary

• A number of frameworks exist to consider couple
  and family wellbeing
• Importance of gaining family views
• Difficulty in finding single framework - problem
  for policy/practice
• Question remains - prevention/early intervention
  - how engage people without problems?

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Help-seeking

• Barriers
• Stigma
• Gender
• Indigenous Australians
• Other issues challenges
• Need multi-faceted approach

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Responses - individual/family/service

• Address stigma
• Universal programs, e.g. Mindmatters,
  relationship education as part of sex education
  in schools
• More complex for adults (not captive), e.g.
  beyondblue
• Increase profile of programs in FRSP as good
  sense
• Intersectoral collaboration - with marketing, IT
• Hard-to-reach groups - examples
• Challenges for services

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Responses - government

• What is Family Policy?
• Key family policy issues intervene early
  quality and content of interventions preventing
  conflict stability
• Understanding of family
• Broader policy environment - e.g. employment,
  taxation, education, child care.
• Individualism vs. optimal conditions for families

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Summary

• Very complex area - not covered cultural,
  work-family, etc.
• Stigma surrounding help-seeking a key issue
• Multifaceted approach - ideally based on family
  wellbeing framework.
• Use of alternative strategies, such as
  Internet-based information
• Collaborations with marketing, IT, others.